An archive of articles and listserve postings of interest, mostly posted without commentary, linked to commentary at the Education Notes Online blog. Note that I do not endorse the points of views of all articles, but post them for reference purposes.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Why Are Our Public Schools Up For Sale?

While
charter proponents claim that their schools are less bureaucratic, more
efficient, and more effective, the evidence fails to back those claims.

August 13, 2012 |

Photo Credit: Margie Hurwich via Shutterstock.com

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"Back-to-school"
sales seem to start earlier every year. These days, more than binders
and backpacks are on offer. Now, public schools themselves are for sale.
In July, Muskegon Heights, Michigan became the first American city to hand its entire school district over to a charter-school operator.
More
than 1.6 million American kids attend charter schools, which emerged in
the early 1990s. Whatever their original intent, charters are
fundamentally restructuring the school system by placing it in private —
often for-profit — hands. They're making teachers and staff work harder
and longer for less pay, usually without union benefits or protection.
In May, Philadelphia's schools announced a plan
to close 64 schools and outsource 25 more to so-called "achievement
networks" run by charter operators. The goal: that 40 percent of
Philadelphia's children attend charters by 2017. Detroit's plans are similar.
Restructuring
may seem the best option. Urban school districts have long struggled to
serve their students. And many of us know firsthand — as former
students, teachers, administrators, or parents — that many of America's
public schools require radical change.
Charter proponents claim
that their schools are less bureaucratic and more efficient, and thus
save taxpayer money. Yet evidence is mounting to show that the opposite
is true. When Philadelphia first announced its restructuring plans, the
budget earmarked for charters stood at $38 million. By July, that figure
was "rounded up" to an astonishing $139 million. Since when is a $100-million cost-overrun a sign of cost-effectiveness?
Moreover,
charter proponents argue that competition and choice pressure all
schools to perform better. This assumes that schools operate on even
playing fields. However, Detroit officials followed their restructuring
plans by imposing a contract
on teachers that caps class sizes at more than 40 students starting in
kindergarten and at a staggering 61 for sixth grade through high school.
No school can possibly "compete" under such conditions.
Finally,
consider Muskegon Heights. The city hired charter operator Mosaica
Education, a for-profit company premised on earning more from contracts
to run schools than it pays out in expenses. In fact, Mosaica expects to earn as much as $11 million in its Muskegon Heights deal.
That's roughly the same amount as the current budget deficit that
officials gave as the reason to hire this outfit in the first place.
Apparently, officials weren't troubled by Mosaica's record elsewhere in
Michigan — its six other charter schools performed on average at the
13th percentile, according to the state's annual ranking in 2011.
That
none of these developments has made national headlines is
mind-boggling. Perhaps this has something to do with the institutional
racism that led to the Supreme Court's crucial Brown v. Board of
Education ruling in 1954.
Muskegon Heights is a highly segregated
African-American community adjacent to the predominantly white Muskegon.
In Muskegon Heights, median household income stood at just over $26,600
in 2010, with over 30 percent of residents living below the poverty
line.
It's primarily in minority-majority communities like this
where schools are being sold off to the highest bidder, regardless of
those bidders' track records.
The same story has played out in
Chicago for almost a decade. The city has closed dozens of neighborhood
schools and considered replacing them with charters. What's different in
Chicago, though, is that the Chicago Teachers Union is leading the
fight against this agenda. After several years of building strong
alliances with parent and community groups, the union is challenging
Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel's attack on public schools. In July,
Emanuel blinked and agreed to reinstate 477 laid-off art, music, PE, and
foreign language teachers.
The union is demonstrating that
teachers and students share common interests. Together with their parent
and community allies, Chicago's teachers and their unions are proving
that they can put public schools back in the public's hands and win the
funding required for the world-class education that all our children
deserve.

Jeff
Bale is an assistant professor of second language education at Michigan
State University. Sarah Knopp is a public high school teacher in Los
Angeles. They are the co-authors of the book Education and Capitalism, published this year by Haymarket Books.

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About Me

Norm Scott worked in the NYC school system from 1967 to 2002, spending 30 of those years teaching elementary school in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn (District 14). He retired in July 2002. He has been active in education reform and in the UFT, often as a critic of union policy, since 1970, working with a variety of groups. In 1996 he began publishing Education Notes, a newsletter for teachers attending the UFT Delegate Assembly. In 2002, he expanded the paper into a 16-page tabloid, printing up to 25,000 copies distributed to teacher mailboxes through Ed Notes supporters. Education Notes started publishing a blog in Aug. 2006. Norm also writes the School Scope education column for The Wave, the Rockaway Beach community newspaper.